Naissance de Vénus 1907

Henri Gervex painted "Naissance de Vénus," sometime in the late 19th century, likely with oils on canvas. You can see Gervex building up the painting, stroke by stroke, starting with the waves in the foreground. The ocean’s surface is painted with a scrubby brush, creating a sense of constant motion. I’m interested in how the whiteness of the crashing waves becomes the pearly flesh of Venus herself. There’s a merging of figure and ground happening, and this ambiguity, this dissolving of boundaries, is what the painting is all about. Look at her right hand, disappearing into the foam, a few ghostly strokes of white, orange, and pink. The way Gervex handles paint reminds me of Renoir, or even Fragonard. He leaves the interpretation open; it’s up to us to decide what we are seeing, and how.